The ketogenic diet has gained immense popularity in recent years as a quick way to lose weight. It involves a high-fat, low-carb approach that forces the body into a state of ketosis, altering how it digests and absorbs nutrients. However, the traditional keto diet's restrictive nature has raised concerns about its long-term sustainability and potential nutritional gaps. Keto 2.0 emerges as a modified version, attempting to address these pitfalls by offering more flexibility and a wider range of food choices.
Understanding the Basics: Traditional Keto vs. Keto 2.0
To appreciate the nuances of Keto 2.0, it's essential to understand the macronutrient distribution in both approaches. The traditional keto diet typically consists of approximately 55% to 60% fat, 30% to 35% protein, and a mere 5% to 10% carbohydrates. This translates to only 25 to 50 grams of carbs per day out of a 2,000-calorie diet, a significant limitation.
In contrast, Keto 2.0 shifts the macronutrient balance to 50% fat, 30% protein, and 20% carbohydrates per day. This seemingly small adjustment significantly expands the options available, allowing for a more balanced and sustainable dietary approach.
The Allure of Keto 2.0: Flexibility and Alignment with Dietary Guidelines
One of the primary reasons Keto 2.0 entices consumers is its increased flexibility. As Vered DeLeeuw, a certified nutritionist and founder of Healthy Recipes Blog, notes, "The main benefit of keto 2.0 is its flexibility." This flexibility stems from the higher carbohydrate allowance, which opens the door to a wider variety of nutrient-rich foods.
Moreover, Keto 2.0 aligns better with conventional dietary advice. The USDA's current Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend 45% to 65% of calories from carbohydrates per day. While still lower than these recommendations, Keto 2.0's 20% carbohydrate allowance is a step closer to mainstream nutritional guidance.
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This alignment is particularly important when considering the role of fiber, a type of carbohydrate routinely recommended to promote health. Adequate fiber intake supports digestive function, manages weight, and lowers the risk of heart disease. The increased carbohydrate allowance in Keto 2.0 makes it easier to incorporate fiber-rich foods like non-starchy vegetables, certain fruits, and whole grains.
Is Keto 2.0 as Effective for Weight Loss?
The traditional keto diet's rapid weight loss results from inducing ketosis, a metabolic state where the body burns fat for energy due to carbohydrate deprivation. Because keto 2.0 allows for a greater daily intake of carbohydrates, experts question whether it would have the same effect as traditional keto. Without ketosis, there’s not much that differentiates keto 2.0 from other low-carb diets on the market right now.
Addressing Sustainability and Nutritional Concerns
Keto 2.0 aims to address some of the sustainability and nutritional concerns associated with the traditional Keto diet by offering a more flexible approach. The traditional keto diet is very strict, and although you will lose weight on the diet, long-term adherence is difficult. Due to the difficulty of sticking to keto in the long term and sustaining weight loss, keto 2.0 was born.
There are many benefits of choosing keto 2.0 over traditional keto. The first, most obvious, benefit is it is far more sustainable. With so many options and more flexibility, you are more likely to stick to it as a lifestyle change rather than a restricting diet. Keto 2.0 is also much better for you. Choosing healthier fat sources such as nuts and olive oil over fatty meats and butter will keep your body in tip-top shape. It does not do you much good to lose weight if your cholesterol is going up or you are having other health issues. You will have a more well-rounded diet on keto 2.0 and are far more likely to get in the recommended daily amounts of fruits and vegetables than on traditional keto. Furthermore, traditional keto does not allow for eating grains, which is not only permitted in keto 2.0 but is an integral part of a balanced diet.
Keto 2.0 and Plant-Forward Approaches
The standard keto diet tends to be pretty meat and dairy heavy, but Keto 2.0 makes way for more nourishing plant-based foods, like non-starchy fruits, vegetables, and certain whole grains. Leverage the fat-burning benefits of a plant-forward keto plan to help improve your blood sugar and metabolic health.
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The original plant-based keto diet, known as Ketotarian, was created by functional medicine expert Will Cole, IFMCP, DNM, DC, author of Ketotarian, The Inflammation Spectrum and Intuitive Fasting. Inflammation lies at the root of many health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease and obesity. A plant-centered keto approach to fighting inflammation focuses on non-starchy vegetables, small amounts of low-sugar fruits, nuts and seeds, fermented foods and optional animal foods, such as eggs, seafood and ghee. But fighting inflammation isn’t the only benefit of this style of eating. It also helps keep your blood sugar in check and, ultimately, may help you achieve metabolic flexibility.
Metabolic Flexibility: A Key Benefit
Simply put, metabolic flexibility is when your body is able to use whatever fuel it has available: It can use carbs when they’re around, or burn fat for energy when they’re not. “When our body is in a state of balance, we should be going from comfortably full after we eat, to hungry, and back to full again,” explains Cole. “Unfortunately, most people are at a state of imbalance where they are going from uncomfortably full, to hungry, cranky, dizzy, or shaky, and then back to full and uncomfortable again once they eat. Another benefit of metabolic flexibility? You can start to trust your own hunger signals.
The Emerging Keto 2.0 Toolkit
Mindsets around the diet have shifted as well, as consumers start seeing it as delicious rather than deprivation-based. "I have followed a plant-based ketogenic diet for several years and enjoy deliciously rich foods including olives, avocado, nuts, seeds, olive oil, tons of nonstarchy vegetables, tofu, lupini beans, and even some low-sugar berries," says Diulus, who made waves when she shared her plant-based approach to keto at mbg’s forward-thinking revitalize in 2017. "There are bread recipes and even chocolate cake with chocolate frosting that are fully plant-based keto. Some have criticized the ketogenic diet for being low in fiber, but in reality when it is based on real food and plant strong, it can be very high in fiber because of low net carbs (total carbs minus fiber) and still ketogenic."
New tools and products are also making those delicious options available to everyone. “I’m most excited about the tremendous increase in the availability of health low-carb and high fat foods,” says Weiss. “Even in the past year alone there has been a huge expansion and we expect that trend to continue.” He personally is the co-founder of Keyto, a product that helps painlessly measure ketosis and provides customized diet plans, where there plans for 2020 directly reflect this new iteration of keto. “We’re developing heart healthy versions of some of the foods that are showing up in the market with optimal balance of fats and often entirely from plant-based sources,” he says. “It will help enable a healthier and more sustainable version of keto for more and more people.
A number of companies have stepped in to make crave-worthy keto food readily available. Base Culture makes a keto sandwich bread with a rich, nutty taste, while Lily's chocolate utilizes stevia to make dark chocolate that's entirely sugar-free. Lilly's Hummus even cracked the traditional chickpea spread, making a keto version that utilizes cauliflower with tahini as its base. Keto coffee brand Know Brainer has even made marshmallows keto-friendly, so you can indulge in plenty of decadent sweet treats on the diet.
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Other Variations of the Keto Diet
Strict Keto Diet
When people say they’re on the strict version of keto, they’re likely referring to the diet that’s been shown to help treat epilepsy. Sometimes called the therapeutic keto diet, this way of eating is the original version of keto, which was created in the 1920s to help treat seizures. This version of the diet allows the lowest amount of carbohydrates, hence being the strictest.
Standard Keto Diet
The most common approach to keto but not precisely defined by dietary experts, the “standard” keto diet involves getting 70 to 80 percent of your calories from fat, 10 to 20 percent from protein, and 5 to 10 percent from carbohydrates. Most on the standard keto diet need to limit their carbohydrate intake to about 20 to 30 grams per day, says Shapiro.
Targeted Keto Diet
The target keto diet involves following the keto diet as usual until 30 to 45 minutes before exercising, at which point you eat about 25 grams of carbohydrates, says Daniela Torchia, PhD, a registered dietitian based in Lakewood Ranch, Florida. The idea is that you’ll have just enough carbs to fuel your workout effectively and still be able to return to ketosis easily after you cool down.
High-Protein Keto Diet
This version of keto calls for upping the protein intake just a bit. With this type, protein should make up about 30 percent of your daily calories, with an additional 65 percent coming from fat and 5 percent from carbohydrates, says Spritzler. Aim to source your protein from both animals (meat, fish, and dairy) and plants (nuts and seeds), she suggests.
Cyclical Keto Diet
On the cyclical keto diet, also called keto cycling, you cycle in and out of keto, usually staying on the diet for five days, followed by one or two days that allow for more carbs. “The point of keto cycling is to make it easier for someone to follow [the diet],” says Kizer. “Every five to six days, they can have the carbohydrates they’ve been entirely restricting.”
Lazy Keto Diet
The purpose of the so-called “lazy keto” diet is to make keto easier to follow. For some people, counting calories, fat, and protein intake is too complicated. “All you track is carbs in lazy keto,” says Kizer. You should still see results that are similar to regular keto as long as you keep your carb intake low enough and don’t go overboard in the protein department, says Kizer.
Mediterranean Keto Diet
Think of Mediterranean keto as a combination of two popular approaches to eating: sticking to standard keto macronutrient amounts while emphasizing Mediterranean diet elements like fatty fish and olive oil. The emphasis is on the quality of fats you eat, says Madeline McDonough, RDN, who is based in Boston.
Dirty Keto Diet
The macronutrient distribution in the “dirty keto” approach is the same as in the standard keto plan, according to Melissa Nieves, RD, who is based in Puerto Rico. The big difference is that the source of these macros can come from any kind of food, including highly processed and prepackaged meals.